Tigers to play spring training games amid $40.8 million renovation to Lakeland complex

This image shows the scope of work at the Tigers' spring training facility in Lakeland, Fla.

The Detroit Tigers will begin spring training games Monday amid a sprawling $40.8 million renovation of their facility in Lakeland, Fla.

The project, subsidized entirely by taxpayers, includes construction of a three-story, 78,000-square-foot building along the right field line of Joker Marchant Stadium that will include a new clubhouse, major and minor league administrative offices, and player development area boasting state-of-the-art rehabilitation space and hydrotherapy pools.

That building alone will cost $20 million, according to information provided by the Tigers.

The project will replace 2,900 open-air grandstand seats along Joker Marchant’s third-base line with 2,800 shaded armchair seats. The seats will be shaded by a continuation of existing stadium roof.

The stadium’s six suites are being reduced to five 16-person suites, but one of the suites will be three times the size of the others, with space for more than 50 people.

Joker Marchant now seats 8,500. The team said post-renovation capacity will be lower but more than 8,000. Total capacity possible is more than 10,000 with grass seating, party decks and other viewing locations.

The Tigers averaged 7,905 fans during 17 games last year at Joker Marchant. They’ve averaged 7,279 per game from 2005-15.

Also new at Joker Marchant will be a shaded patio-party area for up to 600 people, a new yet-to-be-named 110-seat restaurant (available for event use year-round), and a premium stadium club for 60.

Other improvements:

The press box will be expanded by 10 seats for 30 total seats, and a new video production booth will be added for the scoreboard.

There will be seven additional permanent point-of-sale locations for food and beverages, bringing the total to 35. A new concourse will encircle the stucco-walled, Mediterranean architectural-styled stadium.

The stadium also will get its first two family restrooms. The number of women’s toilets will increase to 73 from the current 48, and the number of men’s toilets will increase to 19 from 16 (and seven additional urinals for a total of 29).

One of the team’s four practice fields had its grass replaced with synthetic turf at a cost of $1.26 million, making it able for use shortly after rainstorms.

The other three fields will be sodded with new natural grass.

In the middle of the four practice fields will be a new $450,000 observation tower offering views of each diamond.

Other new construction includes a 6,000-square-foot practice pitching mound at a cost of $26,000; a 9,000-square-foot air-conditioned batting cage building for $350,000; and a 7,000-square-foot weight room.

The construction schedule calls for the stadium’s left field seating to be demolished in April, with clubhouse, office and player development areas to be built by December. The stadium itself would be finished in January and the entire project done by next February.

The initial construction cost estimate was $37 million last year. Of that, $20 million will be paid via state grants, $14.6 million comes from a Polk County hotel tax and $2.4 million comes from the city.

Problems with the soil discovered late last year added $3.8 million to the project cost, which is being covered by the city.

The Lakeland newspaper, The Ledger, last year reported that the project's financing costs over time would bring the final price tag to $60 million, a figure it attributed to the city's special liaison to the team, Bill Tinsley. The Tigers on Friday said that $60 million figure was "inaccurate" but didn't have an alternative final cost that reflected any public borrowing costs.

Lakeland, situated in central Florida, has a population of slightly more than 100,000, and Polk County has more than 600,000 residents. Lakeland’s fiscal year 2016 general fund budget is $107.4 million within a $530.2 million total budget.

If the project isn't finished on time, Lakeland must pay the Tigers $200,000 for every game missed.

The Tigers and the city signed a 20-year contract in January 2015 that begins with this spring training. The deal calls for the Tigers and city to split revenue from any naming rights deal for the stadium. The ratio wasn’t disclosed.

The team pays the city a $530,000 annual lease payment for the facility, long known informally as Tiger Town. That's an increased yearly payment under the new lease with the city, but the team didn't disclose how much of an increase.

By contrast, the club pays $1 a year to the Detroit-Wayne County Stadium Authority for the 35-year lease at Comerica Park that began in 2000 (and then will pay $1 million annually for each of the six 10-year lease extension options exercised).

The Tigers also pay the annual operation costs at Tiger Town, which run about $1 million annually for such facilities.

A message seeking details about the Tiger Town project and its funding was left with the Lakeland city government.

The city estimates the Tigers and their Lakeland operations generate at least $47 million in local economic impact.

Joker Marchant was built by the city for $360,000 and opened in 1966; the Tigers have played there since it opened. It is named for a city parks and recreation director, Marcus Thigpen Marchant, who was nicknamed “Joker” and was instrumental in the creation of Tiger Town.

The stadium is also home to the Lakeland Flying Tigers, which is Detroit’s Single-A affiliate in the Florida State League.

Detroit has held its annual spring training practices in Lakeland since 1934, when they were headquartered at Henley Field Park. The Flying Tigers will play at Henley Field until the Joker Marchant renovations are complete.

The stadium also underwent a $10 million renovation in 2003, and a $300,000 digital scoreboard was added in 2004 after Hurricane Jeanne did $1 million worth of damage to the ballpark.

The Tigers open spring training play at 1:05 p.m. Monday against Florida Southern College at Joker Marchant, and play their first Major League opponent in Lakeland at 1:05 p.m. Tuesday against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Spring training game tickets at Joker Marchant range in price from $10 to $31.

Florida has been trying, with varying levels of success, to keep Major League Baseball teams practicing in the Sunshine State rather than in Arizona, home of the spring training Cactus League.

The Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Royals, Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Dodgers relocated to Arizona from Florida in recent years. The two states now are evenly split with 15 MLB spring training sites each.

Public subsidies in Florida for spring training facilities, either new construction or renovations, aren’t uncommon and often a source of public, political and media criticism. For example, the public will back most of the cost of a $135 million complex in West Palm Beach that will be shared by the Houston Astros and Washington Nationals.

Tigers owner Mike Ilitch has used taxpayer subsidies to finance other parts of his sports holdings: He’s getting $250 million in taxpayer aid for construction of a $627.5 million hockey arena in Detroit for the Detroit Red Wings that he owns with his wife, Marian Ilitch.

Comerica Park got taxpayer support in the form of $86 million worth of stadium authority bonds that are being paid off by rental car and hotel room taxes in Wayne County. Additionally, the city’s Downtown Development Authority provided $40 million toward the project, and the Michigan Strategic Fund gave $55 million.